Bingo game

ABSTRACT

This present invention involves a method and gaming device for playing a bingo-type game. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for allowing a player to use strategy to select or daub a number of bingo balls in a bingo-type game and forgo daubing other balls, thereby adding a new level of player interaction, skill and chance to the game of bingo.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a method of playing a bingo-type game. Moreparticularly, the invention relates to a method for allowing a player touse strategy to select or daub a number of bingo balls in a bingo-typegame and forgo daubing other balls, thereby adding a new level of playerinteraction, skill and chance to the game of bingo.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Bingo is one of the most prevalent forms of gaming across the UnitedStates. In the United States it is organized by, among others, charitygroups and Native American tribes that operate casinos or gamblingparlors. Bingo may be played using electronic devices or in itsnon-electronic form which has existed for several years. In the typicalnon-electronic form each player purchases at least one bingo card (butoften more than one card) that is good for a specified drawing of bingoballs, e.g., the nine o'clock drawing. Each drawing uses a predeterminednumber of bingo balls, typically 75. The typical bingo card is afive-by-five matrix where each column is identified by a letter,B-I-N-G-O, and at each coordinate in the matrix a number is provided.Typically, the “B” column contains numbers ranging from 1 to 15, the “I”column contains numbers ranging from 16 to 30 and so on. As balls aredrawn, the number of the ball is called out and the players determine iftheir card(s) has the drawn ball. If a player's card(s) has the drawnball, the player will daub the spot(s) on his card(s) corresponding tothe ball. Daubing is often accomplished in the non-electronic game bythe use of a special ink marker, but players may use other means torecord the selection of a ball on their card(s), including placing anobject such as a coin or bean on the spot.

In each bingo game there is one or more pattern that, when completed,will entitle the player who completed it to a prize and that may or maynot end the bingo game. A wide variety of patterns have been used inthese games. A “simple” pattern may be any horizontal line of fivedaubed spots. However, there is virtually no limit to the number orcomplexity of patterns that may be used. For instance, the pattern couldbe a “kite” which is defined as a four daubs in a square pattern withtwo daubs in a diagonal line and diagonally touching a point of thesquare to form the “kite's tail.” Thus, the players of the bingo gameare competing with each other to complete the designated patterns.Often, only the first player to complete each pattern is awarded theprize associated with the pattern. In addition to varying the patternthat is used, bingo games may vary the size of the matrix used or thenumber of bingo balls that are used to provide additional variety andexcitement to the game.

Electronic bingo games operate in much the same way as non-electronicgames with a few exceptions. The most notable difference in the twotypes of games is that the electronic bingo balls are drawn much fasterand microprocessors determine if a player's bingo card contains a spotthat matches a drawn ball. As a result, the players do not daub ballsindividually. Rather, the player's electronic device or gaming terminalthat is being used to play bingo will automatically daub multiple ballsfor the player at the touch of a button. Thus, it is no longer up to theplayer to watch the ball draw and determine if any of the balls drawnappear on the player's bingo card. With this electronic setup, all ballsdrawn that appear on a player's card are either instantly daubed as soonas the ball is drawn or a player may periodically hit a daub button toupdate multiple balls on his card at once. The ability to draw ballsquicker and to almost instantaneously automatically daub spots thatmatch the drawn balls allows players of electronic bingo to play manymore bingo games in a given amount of time than with non-electronicbingo. Also, because a computer or other electronic device is used tomonitor the bingo game, far more complex bingo patterns can be used thanwith non-electronic bingo games. These differences between electronicbingo and non-electronic bingo have led to electronic bingo terminalsthat display, in addition to a bingo card, other entertaining graphicsto the player. The most successful such devices display what appears tobe a slot machine like those used in Las Vegas. These bingo terminalsoften determine the amount of a player's win, if any, based on one ormore of the following criterion: the number of player's playing thegame, the number of balls it took the player to complete a pattern andthe specific pattern completed. Once the amount of the win isdetermined, the portion of the terminal resembling a slot machine isthen used to display a combination of slot machine symbols that wouldcorrespond to the determined amount.

In the non-electronic form of bingo described above, the player uses acertain amount of skill to recognize that his card or cards contain aspot matching a drawn ball and to daub the spots corresponding to thatball in the time before the next ball is drawn, although there istypically no time limit placed on how quickly a spot must be daubed.Because there is no additional cost associated with daubing a spot andbecause there is no penalty involved with daubing a spot that issubsequently not used to complete a bingo pattern, the player will, ifhe is able, daub every possible spot that he can. Thus the amount ofplayer interaction in non-electronic bingo is very limited. Inelectronic bingo, a computer determines whether a player's card has aspot that matches or concords with any drawn balls. And for the samereasons as those discussed in non-electronic bingo, there has never beena need in the electronic form of bingo described above to allow a playerto daub some spots but not others. As a result, the level of playerinteraction in electronic bingo is even less than in non-electronicbingo and the level of competition between players is also reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for playinga bingo-type game which overcomes the above-described shortcomingsassociated with the known forms of both electronic and non-electronicbingo games, by presenting the player with a strategic decision for atleast a portion of the bingo balls that are drawn and that may be daubedon the player's card. It is still a further object of the presentinvention to provide visual indicia familiar to a large number of gamingpatrons that will quickly and easily convey the strategic decisionsavailable to the players of said bingo game.

Strategic decision or strategy as used herein is accorded its usualmeaning in the gaming art and relates to decisions that can be madebased on statistical probability and expected value to maximize aplayer's chance of success, even if the player is not completely awareof, or even misunderstands, the mathematical principals involved. Inthis context, strategic decision also refers to the decision by a playerwhether or not to daub a spot on his card when a corresponding ball isdrawn based on any number of factors including the pays associated withvarious bingo patterns, the other balls that have been drawn, the numberof balls remaining, etc. Penalty as used herein is also accorded itsusual meaning in the gaming art, and more specifically, in the contextof the present invention, means a player using or not using one daub ona spot that reduces the probability of a player completing at least onespecific paying bingo pattern either because for instance, other ballsrequired for any winning pattern were already, or will be disregarded(i.e., undaubed), or there are fewer daubs remaining to complete anothermore desirable pattern or the pattern involving the penalty daub is lessdesirable than another pattern. In this context, those skilled in theart will understand that a strategic decision that is mathematicallycorrect or optimal may involve not daubing a spot that is likely toresult in a bingo win (or may even complete a winning bingo pattern atthe very time the decision is made not to daub it) because theprobabilities and payouts involved dictate that the player tries for ahigher paying pattern. In this case, the failure to daub the spot isstill a penalty, even though it was mathematically optimal (i.e.,strategically correct) to incur the penalty.

The method of the present invention involves determining a first numberof daubs to be used by a player and a first number of bingo balls to bedrawn. The first number of daubs allotted to the player is preferablyless than or equal to the first number of bingo balls to be drawn.Preferably the first number of daubs allotted and the first number ofbingo balls drawn are determined well in advance of the playersinitiating the bingo game and remain constant from game to game. Afterthe first number of balls are drawn, the players chose which if any oftheir first number of allotted daubs they will use to selectively daubspots matching the balls drawn. This determination should be made byeach player in order to maximize each particular player's chances ofsuccess. After each player has made his daub selections, additionalbingo balls may or may not be drawn. The drawing of additional balls maydepend on whether a player achieved a game-ending bingo during the firstselection. The spots matching the additional balls drawn after the firstselection may be daubed automatically according to the number ofremaining first allotted daubs that each player has after the firstselection or these spots may again be selectively daubed by each player.At some point in the game, it may be desirable to rapidly provide bingoballs to the player that can be daubed without penalty.

It will also be preferable to offer a large variety of bingo patternsfor the players to attempt. It will also be desirable for the prizesassociated with each pattern to vary. Preferably the prize amounts willrelate to the statistical probability of successfully completing thebingo pattern either in a certain number of drawn bingo balls or beforeother players complete a game-ending bingo pattern.

Although the method of the present invention may be practiced in anon-electronic format, it will be appreciated by those skilled in theart that an electronic format will both facilitate the ease of play aswell as dissuade and/or prevent players from attempting to cheat thegame by altering their daub selections after additional balls are drawn.Also, although the present invention may be enjoyably played by a singleplayer competing against only a computer opponent and/or a pay tablewhen making his strategic decisions with respect to which balls to daub,it is most preferred that players compete against each other in at leasta portion of the game.

In its electronic format, the bingo game according to the presentinvention can associate traditional playing cards in a visualpresentation that resembles poker. Preferably the poker game imitatedwill be one of the many popular five-card video draw poker games playedin Las Vegas style casinos on stand-alone slot machines. In such anembodiment the traditional five-by-five bingo matrix is changed toeither a four-by-thirteen or four-by-fourteen matrix. Each of the fourrows of the matrix is associated with one of the four suits used inpoker—clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. Each column is associated witha card ranking of 2 through Ace; in the four-by-fourteen version, theAce will appear as both the first column and the last. (The generaldesirability of using a four-by-fourteen matrix to allow for both a“high” and a “low” Ace will be appreciated by those familiar with poker,and further reference herein to a poker-type bingo game using thepresent invention will make reference to a four-by-thirteen matrixgenerally, with the understanding that a four-by-fourteen matrix couldalso be used with little alteration of the underlying game.) On eachplayer's bingo card matrix preferably only one number will be randomlyassigned to the spots on the player's bingo card from the populationthat makes up the numbers appearing on the bingo balls available to bedrawn in the bingo game. In this configuration it may be desirable touse 52 bingo balls rather than 75 and to randomly assign a number from 1to 52 to each spot in the matrix. Thus, for every player, any ball drawnwill result in the opportunity to daub exactly one spot on his bingocard.

In the version of the present invention that emulates five-card drawvideo poker, the bingo patterns used will correspond to traditionalhands of poker and the payout for each pattern will approximatelycorrespond with the payouts associated with traditional video poker.Thus, any horizontal line of five daubs on the four-by-thirteen bingocard would result in a payout of at least 50 credits for each credit betand would provide the player with a visual indication of five cards ofthe same suit all in numerical succession, i.e., a straight flush. Eachplayer would initially be allotted five daubs and the initial draw ofbingo balls will also be five. After the five bingo balls are drawn, theplayer's terminal would preferably show the player the five balls andthe corresponding spots on the player's card as well as the playingcards associated with each spot. The player would then be given theopportunity to selectively daub none, one, two, three, four or all ofthe spots on his card based on the initial draw. For each spot that isdaubed, the corresponding card would also be “held.” After the playerhas determined which of the five spots he wishes to daub, he would hit abutton signaling his desire to proceed with the drawing of additionalbingo balls. After all the players enrolled in the bingo game haveindicated their desire to draw the additional balls, the second drawwill begin. As each ball is drawn in the second draw, each spot on eachplayer's card corresponding to the drawn ball is automatically daubeduntil all of the player's remaining allotted daubs that were not used onthe first round of drawn balls are used up. Thus, in this preferredembodiment, the second ball draw will never exceed five balls (themaximum number of remaining daubs being five if a player chose not todaub any spots during the first round).

After the second round of ball draws and automatic daubing is completed,each player's card is examined to determine if that player completed awinning bingo pattern using only the initial allotment of daubs, five.For the purposes of this evaluation, spots that were not daubed eitherbecause the player chose not to daub them during the initial round orbecause the player had already used up his allotment of daubs in orprior to the second round are ignored. For each player that completed awinning pattern using five or fewer daubs, a prize according to thepredetermined prize table will be paid to the player. This may alsoconstitute a game-ending bingo that will end the game. If no playercompleted a winning pattern using five or fewer daubs, the undaubedspots corresponding to previously drawn balls may also be reviewed orother balls may be drawn that will automatically be daubed using asecond unlimited allotment of daubs until a predetermined game-endingbingo pattern occurs. These patterns may include, but are not limited tothe patterns for which payouts are provided for the initial five daubsor fewer and will preferably payout much less than the patternsaccomplished using the initial five daubs.

In an alternative form of the invention, each player has available tohim two types of daubs. The first type of daub operates like standardbingo daubs, i.e., there is no penalty for daubing a spot and there isno strategic decision to be made when a player's bingo card contains aspot corresponding to a drawn ball. The second type of daub is eitherlimited in number or is used to complete bingo patterns that have apayout dictated in part by the number of daubs used to complete thepattern. The player can chose whether or not to use the second type ofdaub when a spot on the player's bingo card corresponds to a drawn ball.Thus, this decision involves a strategic risk-reward decision and thepossibility of a penalty.

These and other objects, advantages, and features of the invention willbe apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments,considered along with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an electronic gaming terminal for playing a bingo gameaccording to the method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the electronic configuration of anembodiment of the gaming terminal shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a plurality of electronic gamingterminals connected to a network computer for playing a bingo gameaccording to the method of the present invention.

FIGS. 4A-4C is a flow chart showing the steps according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5A-5C is a flow chart showing the steps according to an alternativeembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a pay table that may be used in the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a game of the present invention being played after theinitial ball draw employing the pay table patterns defined in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 shows the final result of the game initially depicted in FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 shows an alternative pay table that may be used in the presentinvention and shows how bingo patterns may be associated withtraditional poker hand rankings.

FIG. 10 shows a game of the present invention being played by a firstplayer after the initial ball draw employing the pay table patternsdefined in FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 shows a game of the present invention being played by a secondplayer after the initial ball draw employing the pay table patternsdefined in FIG. 9.

FIG. 12 shows the final result of the game initially depicted in FIG.10.

FIG. 13 shows the final result of the game initially depicted in FIG.11.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a player terminal or gaming device 100 for implementing thepresent invention. Gaming device 100 has the features of a conventionalplayer terminal or slot machine. The gaming device 100 shown in FIG. 1is what is commonly referred to as an electronic bingo terminal. FIG. 1displays a bingo terminal that is very similar to an upright slotmachine which the player can operate while standing or sitting. Mostoften the gaming device 100 is preferably mounted on a cabinet. (Notshown.) Although an up-right electronic bingo terminal 100 is shown inFIG. 1, it can be appreciated that the gaming device 100 can be anyother style of gaming machine known in the art including, but notlimited to a pub-style table-top or slant-top game in which a player canoperate while sitting. The gaming device 100 can be constructed withvarying cabinet and display designs.

Gaming device 100 may also include one or more display devices. Theembodiment shown in FIG. 1 shows a central display 105 and an upperdisplay 107. The upper display 107 may be used to show an electronicbingo game or a bonus game, while the central display 105 may display anelectronic bingo game and/or ancillary visual indicia representing suchgames as slots, video poker, blackjack and/or keno. More specifically,the visual indicia could include, but is not limited to, playing cardsand/or slot machine reels with symbols. The symbols and indicia used onand in gaming device 100 may be in mechanical, electrical, electronic orvideo form. The central display 105 in FIG. 1 shows both an electronicbingo game and visual indicia of playing cards.

It should be appreciated that the display devices may display any visualrepresentation or exhibition, including but not limited to video imagesor movement of physical objects such as mechanical reels and wheels. Thedisplay devices can be a video monitor or screen, a liquid crystaldisplay or any other display mechanism. Furthermore, it should beappreciated that these display devices preferably include touchscreens.

As shown in FIG. 1, gaming device 100 includes a wager acceptingmechanism 110. The wager accepting mechanism 110 can be a bill acceptor.The wager accepting mechanism 110 can also accept other forms of paymentincluding, but not limited to tickets, smart cards, debit cards andcredit cards. With these other types of payment, other types ofvalidators or readers other than a bill acceptor may be used. There isalso a coin slot 120 on the gaming device 100 in which a player caninsert coins or tokens.

Often, there is also a card reader 130. The card reader 130 may includeany type of card reading device, such as a magnetic card reader or anoptical card reader. The player will insert a card, such as a playertracking card or a credit card into the card reader 130 which will thenread data from the card. The card reader 130 may be used to read and/orwrite from and/or to the inserted card.

After a player inserts money in the gaming device 100, either via thecoin slot 120 or the wager accepting mechanism 110, a number of creditscorresponding to the amount deposited is shown in a credit meter 140.After money is credited to the machine 100 and shown on the credit meter140, the player then determines the wager amount. In order to facilitatethe wager, the player may alternatively push a bet one credit button 170repeatedly until the number of desired credits to be wagered is reachedor may push a maximum bet button 150 which automatically allows theplayer to wager the maximum amount on the gaming device 100. As theplayer is selecting the wager amount, this wager amount is displayed ona bet display 160. As the bet display 160 amount is incrementing, thecredit meter 140 amount is decreasing by the corresponding amount. Inshould be appreciated by anyone of known skill in the art that a playermay also interact with the gaming device 100 by touching the appropriatemarked regions on the displays 105 and 107 when the displays areequipped with touchscreens. Once the player has finalized his wageramount, the player may initiate play either by pressing a “Play” buttonor a “Draw/Continue Draw” button 145 or by touching the appropriateregion on the displays 105 and 107.

To accomplish the selective daubing of the present invention, a numberof daub buttons 155 a, 155 b, 155 c, 155 d, and 155 e may be provided onthe gaming device 100. Each daub button 155 a, 155 b, 155 c, 155 d, and155 e preferably corresponds to exactly one spot or exactly onecorresponding bingo ball drawn. Alternatively the player may selectwhich spots to daub using the touchscreen to either touch the spot orthe corresponding ball. When the daub buttons 155 a, 155 b, 155 c, 155d, and 155 e are used, they are preferably visually aligned with thebingo balls they correspond with so that the player can expeditiouslydaub the desired spots/balls.

If the player has completed his play of the gaming device 100, and hestill has a credit amount on the credit meter 140, the player may cashout. To cash out, the player will push a cash out button 180. Dependingon the gaming device 100 configuration, the gaming device may pay outcoins into a coin tray 190 corresponding to the amount shown on thecredit meter 140. Alternatively, the gaming device 100 may issue aticket from the wager accepting mechanism 110 corresponding to theamount shown on the credit meter 140 or the gaming device 100 mayelectronically transfer the credit amount to a smart card or a player'saccount.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the general electronic configuration thatmay be incorporated in gaming device 100. The configuration preferablyincludes a processor 200. The processor 200 is preferably amicrocontroller-based platform or microprocessor which is capable ofdisplaying images, symbols and other indicia such as images of people,characters, places, things and faces of cards. One or more secondaryprocessors may also be employed in conjunction with the primaryprocessor to control certain aspects of the game function.

The gaming device 100 also includes a memory device 210 for storingprogram code or other data. This memory device 210 can include both readonly memory (ROM) 205 and random access memory (RAM) 207. In addition tothe memory device 210, the electronic configuration of the gaming device100 may also include one or more input devices 220, one or more displaydevices 230, a sound card 240, and one or more speakers 250.

The input devices 220 include but is not limited to play button 145, betone credit button 175, the daub buttons 155 a, 155 b, 155 c, 155 d, themax bet button 150 and the cash out button 180. In situations where atouch screen 260 is used, a touch screen controller 265 and touch screen260 are connected to a video controller 270 and the processor 200.

Although FIG. 2 shows the processor 200 and memory device 210 residingon the gaming device 100, it should be appreciated that it is possiblefor both the processor 200 and memory device 210 to reside at a centrallocation instead of at the gaming device 100. In such a situation, anetwork server may be used to communicate to a playing station over anInernetnet connection, local area network (LAN), or wide area network(WAN). The processor 200 and memory device 210 are generally referred toherein as the controller.

FIG. 3 displays a gaming system 300 in which multiple gaming devices 100are connected to a central or network computer 310 via a network datalink or bus 320. The gaming system 300 may include a second group ofgaming devices 100 which are connected to another central networkcomputer (Not shown) via another network data link or bus (Not shown).The first and second gaming systems 300 may be coupled to one anothervia any type of network known in the art including, but not limited tothe Internet, a wide area network (WAN), or a local area network (LAN).

When play is initiated, the processor randomly assigns a unique numberfrom the appropriate group to each position in the bingo card. In analternate embodiment, the player may chose the numbers assigned to eachposition on the card. Often, one or more positions are displayed as“free” indicating that the free position will always be treated asdaubed for the game.

Turning now to FIG. 4A-4C and FIGS. 6 to 8, a first embodiment of thepresent invention will now be described in greater detail. In theembodiment that will be described, two different types of daubs,arbitrarily named special daubs and regular daubs, are used. Each typeof daub may have its own associated bingo patterns, special patterns andregular patterns, that may be the same patterns or different. Each bingopattern, whether special or regular, may have a different payoutassociated with it. FIGS. 4A-4C is a flowchart of one manner ofoperating the gaming routine. FIG. 6 is an image of a “See Pays” screenthat may be displayed and used in conjunction with the manner ofoperation shown in FIGS. 4A-4C. FIGS. 7 and 8 show the informationconveyed to the player by the video display device 105 and/or 107 atvarious points during the game.

Referring to FIG. 4A, the gaming routine may begin at block 401 at whichthe gaming system 300 loads the bingo patterns that will result in a payas well as the amount of each pay. These pays may vary depending on thebingo game, the number of players playing and may also vary depending onthe size of each individual player's wager. Although the patterns usedfor special daubs and regular daubs are the same in this example, thisis a matter of convenience only and different patterns may be used forthe two different sets of daubs. Preferably the pay information isrelatively constant such that players can easily predict what patternsand associated pays they are playing for from game to game. The patternand pay information may be communicated to the player via a see paysscreen 601 as shown in FIG. 6. At block 403 the number of bingo balls tobe used in the draw universe for the game is determined. Referring toFIG. 6, in the “rules” section 655 of the see pays screen 601, it isapparent that the total number of bingo balls available for drawing hasbeen set to sixty. At block 405 the gaming system determines the numberof allotted special daubs each player will initially receive. Referringto the rules section 655, it is apparent that for this game the numberof special daubs has been set at eight. At block 407 a counter fortracking the number of bingo balls drawn, C, is set to zero and thenumber of balls to be drawn in the first draw is set. Again referring tothe rules section 655, it is apparent that the number of balls per drawhas been set to eight. Although steps 401, 403, 405 and 407 relating tothe setting of the bingo game's basic parameters are shown as comingbefore the enrollment of any player in block 409, it should beunderstood that this is not necessary. Indeed as already disclosed, inmany applications, these parameters may change depending upon the numberof players enrolled or the size of the various wagers enrolled. Thus, itshould be understood that unless specifics of the invention dictateotherwise, the order of the steps performed is not relevant.

At block 409 a first player is enrolled in the game. In the electronicversion of the game, it will be appreciated and understood by thosefamiliar with the gaming art that enrolling a player in the game mayinclude the steps of the player establishing credit at an electronicgaming terminal 100 by either depositing currency in the form of billsor coin or by using other value-accepting mechanisms associated with thegaming terminal 100. These may include bill/ticket validator 110, coinslot 120 or card reader 130. Once credit is established, the player mayenroll in the game by indicating the amount of his wager using variousplayer input mechanisms and pressing start or draw button 145 or similarinput means. After the first player is enrolled at block 409 the gamingsystem 300 waits for at least a second player to enroll at block 411.The gaming system may wait for additional players to enroll usingalgorithms well known in the electronic bingo art as indicated at block413. These algorithms may be very simple, for instance waiting for apredetermined number of players, e.g., four, or waiting a predeterminedamount of time to enroll as many players as possible, e.g., thirtyseconds. Alternatively, the algorithms may be much more complex and mayvary the number of players or the time window for enrollment based uponhow many terminals are in active use across the gaming systems network.It may be desirable for the gaming system to communicate to the playersthe total number of enrolled players using display device 105 or 107 orsome other communication device. Also during enrollment, each player maybe issued at least one bingo card 700 similar to the one shown in FIG.7. The bingo card will preferably have numbers corresponding to theavailable draw universe of bingo balls. The numbers will preferably berandomly distributed on the bingo card 700, but the player may beallowed to exercise a degree of control over the numbers he is assignedand how they are arranged using the various player input means provided.In the non-electronic form of the invention, the step of enrollingplayers is typically performed by selling a player a bingo card thatbears an indication of which bingo draw it is good for.

Referring again to FIG. 4A, at block 417 another game parameter is set.In this example, block 417 turns autodaub ON for regular daubs (“RegularAutodaub”) and turns autodaub OFF for special daubs (“SpecialAutodaub”). As will be seen, setting these two autodaub features in thisfashion will result in two bingo games being played simultaneously. Inthe first game dealing with regular daubs, all of the spots 709 on eachplayer's card 700 corresponding to a drawn bingo ball will automaticallybe daubed until one player achieves a regular bingo pattern (which mayalso be referred to as a game-ending bingo pattern), at which point theregular aspect of the bingo game will be terminated. In the second gamedealing with special daubs, the player will initially be given theoption of which of the available spots 709 to daub as groups of bingoballs are drawn. But in subsequent draws, the player's remaining specialdaubs that were unused in the initial draw or draws will beautomatically used in an autodaub format for the subsequent spots untilsuch time as each player's allotted special daubs are completely used.

Autodaub or automatically daubed as used herein refers to any electronicmeans that automatically keeps track of spots available for daubing on aplayer's bingo card 700 and that daubs all of these available spotswithout giving the player the option to daub some individuallyselectable subset of the spots. Some forms of autodaub being used inelectronic bingo games today require a player to periodically hit abutton to initiate an autodaub. Upon doing so, all spots available atthat time are daubed. The player may have to hit this button to initiatethe autodaub on later occasions throughout the game to effectuate adaubing of spots that match with newly drawn balls. Although suchroutines allow a player to selectively autodaub groups of availablespots, they do not allow a player to daub some of the spots in thesegroups and not others, nor do they allow a player to daub the spots inone subsequent group but not the spots in a previous group. Therefore,each such application is still within the meaning of autodaub as usedherein.

At block 420 a bingo ball is drawn by the network computer 310 andcommunicated to each player's game terminal 100. Each player's gameterminal 100 will display the drawn ball in a ball display area 710,e.g., ball display icon 720 on FIG. 7. In FIG. 4B at block 421 C isincremented by one to reflect that a ball has been drawn. At block 422the gaming routine determines if there is a match between the recentlydrawn ball and any of the spots on each player's bingo card 700.Preferably this operation is carried out by the processor 200 in theindividual gaming terminals 100 and communicated to the network computer310. When there is a match, the gaming terminal's display device 105 or107 preferably may provide a visual indication of such by highlightingthe available spot 709 on the player's bingo card 700 and/or byhighlighting the ball display icon 720 in the ball display area 710. Ofcourse, a variety of visual indications may be used. At block 424, thegame routine determines if Regular Autodaub is ON. If it is ON, thisindicates that a regular bingo pattern has not yet been formed usingregular daubs. If Regular Autodaub is OFF, no daubing of regular spotscan occur in the embodiment shown and the gaming routine will proceed toblock 433 dealing with special daubs. Preferably the Regular Autodaubfunction is set the same at all times for all gaming terminals 100playing the bingo game. Thus, in this embodiment the player's arecompeting against each other to be the first to complete a regular bingopattern using regular daubs. Assuming that Regular Autodaub is ON, thematching spot 709 on each player's bingo card 700 is daubed with aregular daub as indicated at block 426. At block 428, the logic of thegaming system determines if the last ball drawn completes a regularbingo pattern using regular daubs. If it does, the player or players (ifmultiple patterns are completed using the same final ball) are paid forthe regular pattern win at block 430. In order not to interrupt the flowof the game, it may be desirable to provide the win to the player at theultimate end of the game, however. After a pattern has been completedwith regular daubs, the Regular Autodaub is turned OFF at block 432.

After the gaming routine of the present invention has dealt withapplication of regular daubs, it proceeds to block 433, which begins theportion dealing with special daubs. At block 433 the routine determinesif there are any unused special daubs remaining. The determination ofwhether a player has any special daubs remaining unused will preferablybe made by the processor 200 in each individual player's game terminal100 as the usage of the special daubs is intended to be a strategicdecision made by each individual player. If there are remaining unusedspecial daubs (i.e., if X>0), the routine proceeds to block 434 todetermine whether Special Autodaub is ON. Because this parameter ispreferably set to OFF in block 417 at the beginning of the game, theroutine will initially proceed to logic block 436. At block 436 theroutine determines if the last drawn ball completes the set of balls tobe drawn (i.e., if Y=C). If it does not, additional balls are preferablydrawn to complete the set.

If the last drawn ball does complete a selectable set, the gamingroutine proceeds to block 438 where the player is then allowed to usesome, none or all of his special daubs on the balls in the set.Referring now to FIG. 7, the terminal's display screens 105 or 107 mayat this point display a message 730 notifying the player that he may nowmake his selection. As previously discussed the balls in the set thathave been drawn 720, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726 and 727 are alsopreferably displayed and the balls in this set 720, 721, 722, 724, 725,726 and 727 that concord with a spot on the player's bingo card 700 arepreferably highlighted in some fashion as are the matching spots 709 onthe player's bingo card. The player may make his selection by using atouchscreen, light pen, buttons or the like to indicate either theavailable spots 709 or the matching ball display icons (ball displayicons 720, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726 and 727). After a player hasmade his selections and is satisfied with them, he preferably actuates a“Continue Draw” button 145 that indicates his desire to proceed with thebingo game. At this time the player's allotment of special daubs isreduced by the number just used as indicated at block 440.

At block 442 the Special Autodaub is switched to ON. This signifies thatat this point in the game, any remaining special daubs willautomatically be used on any additional available spots as additionalballs are drawn without giving the player the option to strategicallydecide not to daub them. It will be appreciated by those familiar withgaming that it may be desirable to determine if any player has completeda special bingo pattern using special daubs as soon as the Continue Drawbutton 145 is activated. In some alternative embodiments, only the firstplayer to complete a special bingo pattern with special daubs mayreceive an award to heighten the competition amongst the players. Also,it will be appreciated that a player may be allotted more than eightspecial daubs, but then because balls are drawn in sets of eight, it maybe possible for a player to have more than eight special daubs remainingafter the first set is evaluated. In such a situation, it may bedesirable to draw another set of eight balls and allow the player tostrategically decide for which of the resulting available spots to usespecial daubs. Thus, in this alternative embodiment the Special Autodaubin not set to ON until the player has fewer special daubs remaining thanthe number of balls drawn per set. Alternatively, the Special Autodaubcan be set to ON after a predetermined number of ball sets other thanthe first one have been drawn. Setting Special Autodaub to ON canoptionally be done either on an individual gaming terminal 100 or acrossall gaming terminals 100 playing the current bingo game by the networkcomputer 310. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatthe options of only awarding the first special bingo pattern formed withspecial daubs, allowing Special Autodaub to remain OFF for a second (orfurther) set of balls and allowing Special Autodaub to be switched to ONfor some terminals but not others can be used in various combinations toprovide players a variety of interesting and entertaining options. Eachoption offers a different strategy and level of competition between theplayers.

After the Special Autodaub is turned ON, additional available spots willbe automatically daubed as indicated at block 444 until the number ofspecial daubs remaining is reduced to zero via block 446. Referring nowto FIG. 4C and to logic blocks 448 and 452, collectively these blocksdetermine whether additional balls need to be drawn either to ensure atleast one player completes a regular pattern with regular daubs or toallow each player to use his allotment of special daubs. Of course, inthe alternative embodiments discussed in the foregoing paragraph wherethere is no guarantee that a player will use all of his special daubs orwhere players compete to be the first to complete a special bingopattern using special daubs, block 448 is adjusted accordingly. At logicblock 454 the gaming routine determines if a player has completed aspecial bingo pattern using special daubs and if so, pays the player forthe special win at block 456.

Referring now to FIG. 8, it is apparent that the player chose to usespecial daubs on available spots 840 but not on available spots 850 and851 when given the opportunity in the flowchart at block 438. To signifythat available spots 850 and 851 have been marked with regular daubs,but not special daubs, different graphic patterns may be used on thebingo card 700 and in the section of the video display 105 or 107showing the drawn balls 710. In the instant example a regular daub isindicated by a / hash mark, a special daub is indicated by a \ hash markand a spot with both daubs is indicated by an X. The decision not todaub the spot corresponding to drawn ball number fifty three 850 ismathematically and strategically the correct choice because the mostlikely pattern spot 850 would be used to complete is the diagonaltraversing from the upper right corner to the lower left corner. Tocomplete this pattern, the player needs ball number forty. However, ifball number forty is drawn, the player would also complete a kitepattern resulting from balls four 720, fourteen 721, twenty-one 725 andseven 724 as well as the “Free Space” in the center of the five-by-fivematrix. As the kite pattern pays a greater number of credits thediagonal pattern would be ignored per the rules in FIG. 6. Because theplayer chose not to daub the spot corresponding to ball numberfifty-three 850, it was also logical for the player to not daub the spotcorresponding to ball number fifty-two 851.

Note that the player also chose to daub the spot corresponding to ballnumber one 853. Based on the pay table shown in FIG. 6 and thestatistical expected value of this decision, this was not themathematically optimal play. The odds of this spot being used tocomplete the bottom-left to top-right diagonal with three special daubsremaining is 0.005%. The odds of this spot being used to complete thevertical line in the B column 701 is 0.226% and the odds of the playercatching ball number 40 to complete the kite with three special daubsremaining (the number of daubs the would remain if the spot 853 isdaubed) is 5.769%. Thus, the expected value of daubing this spot is0.00005×3 (the pay for a diagonal)+0.00226×7 (the pay for avertical)+0.05769×10 (the pay for a kite), or 0.5929. Whereas, theexpected value that the player would receive just for the kite alone, ifhe had four special daubs in which to complete it, is 7.692%×10, or0.7692. Thus, by daubing the spot 853 associated with the one ball, theplayer lost over 0.1763 in expected value. Although this may constitutean error in mathematical strategy, it is still a strategic decision ascontemplated by the invention.

Again referring to FIG. 8, the outcome of the decisions that the playermade at block 438 in the game routine after the initial eight bingoballs were drawn can now be determined. The player's bingo card 700contained spots corresponding to the next three bingo balls drawn in thesecond drawing as indicated by ball icons 828, 829 and 830. Thereforethese spots were autodaubed with regular daubs as indicated at block 426and with special daubs as indicated at block 444. The player's remainingnumber of special daubs was reduced by one for each spot at block 446.Thus the first three ball drawn in the second draw used up all of theplayer's allotted special daubs. It will be appreciated that in analternative embodiment, it may be desirable once the Special Autodaub isON to reduce the player's number of special daubs by one for every balldrawn, regardless of whether there is a match between the drawn ball anda spot on the player's bingo card 700. Because the first three spots 845that were covered using the player's remaining special daubs did notcomplete a special bingo pattern, the player did not receive any specialpays. However, the fourth bingo ball drawn in the second drawing asindicated by ball icon 831 was ball number forty. The spot 852 matchingball number forty was autodaubed with a regular daub as indicated atblock 426 and completed the pattern forming a kite using regular daubs.And because the Regular Autodaub was still set to ON, indicating noother player had yet formed a regular bingo pattern, the player would beawarded five credits at block 430 as indicated by the pay table shown inFIG. 6. Note had the player not used a special daub to daub spot 853corresponding to bingo ball number one, the drawing of bingo ball numberforty would have also completed a special bingo pattern using specialdaubs, in which case the player may have been awarded both ten creditsfor the special win and five credits for the regular win. Alternatively,the rules for the game may be adjusted so that the player is onlyawarded for a single win, in this case the ten credits for the specialwin, as the highest win, would be the preferred payout.

Using the same principles of expected value demonstrated above, it willbe appreciated by those skilled in the art that once the number ofplayers in a given bingo game is known, the total expected value for anygiven player at any time can be determined or approximated by reviewingthe rules of the game, particularly those displayed in FIG. 6, and thestatus of the ball draw compared to each player's bingo card 700.Further, it will be appreciated that the expected value will becomprised of two components. The first component comes from the bingopays that use regular daubs and is therefore entirely based on luck. Thesecond component comes from the bingo pays that use special daubs and istherefore based at least in part on the player's strategic decisions aswell as luck. By adjusting the payouts for the various patterns, theexpected value of both the regular pays and the special pays can easilybe adjusted. Preferably the two components when added together willproduce an expected value greater than 0.75 but less than 1.00 (becausean expected value above 1.00 would mean that with perfect strategy, thehouse may lose money in the long term). Furthermore, most preferably thetotal expected value will be greater than 0.95, of which more than 0.90is attributable to the special pays. In terms of a ratio the expectedvalue of the special pays to the expected value of the regular pays willbe greater than approximately 20:1, and most preferably greater thanapproximately 40:1.

It will be appreciated that in addition to the variations to the gamingroutine described in FIGS. 4A-4C that have already been disclosed, othervariations are made possible merely by adjusting the parameters of thegame such as the number of allotted special daubs set at block 405 andthe number of bingo balls drawn per group set at block 407. Forinstance, in one alternative embodiment the number of allotted specialdaubs could randomly change at some point in the game. This would inturn alter the expected value of special daubs that the player couldhave used, but chose to save. Also, it may be possible to allow theplayer to “purchase” additional special daubs at some point in the gameby increasing his wager. The “price” of these special daubs need not beconstant and could change in either a predictable or random manner.Preferably, the price of the special daubs would increase as the game isplayed. Thus, referring to the example shown in FIG. 6, one creditinitially purchases eight special daubs. Therefore, in this alternativeembodiment it would be preferable to allow the player to purchase lessthan eight special daubs for one credit. Additional special daubs couldbe purchased either one at a time or in groups. Also, by changing thenumber of bingo balls drawn per group, the decisions made by the playerwould significantly change. For instance if Y is set to one at block407, the player may be presented with only one bingo ball at a time andwould have to decide whether to daub it based on which balls werepreviously drawn without seeing any other balls that will be drawn.While if Y is greater than one, the player gets to evaluate a largergroup of balls, but may be limited to selecting only one ball out ofeach group by resetting the allotted special daubs to one before eachgroup of balls is drawn.

Referring now to the flowchart in FIGS. 5A-5C and FIGS. 9 to 12, anotheralternative embodiment will now be described. Among the features of thisembodiment that differ from the embodiment described in FIGS. 4A-4C isthat there is only one type of daub. The player is initially limited tothe number of daubs he is allotted, but if no player completes agame-ending pattern in the allotted daubs, additional daubs are allottedto every player and autodaubed as additional balls are drawn until thereis at least one winner. In this embodiment a great premium may be paidfor completing a pattern in the original allotment of balls. Alsodifferent from the embodiment previously described is the addition ofancillary indicia, in the form of playing cards, that are nottraditionally associated with the game of bingo. In addition toproviding the player with additional visual stimulus, the playing cardsallow the player to quickly and more accurately evaluate the strategicdecisions available to the player after the initial group of bingo ballsis drawn.

In FIG. 5A, at block 560 the gaming routine of the present embodimentmay be initiated by loading the pay table information shown in FIG. 9.At block 561 the total universe of bingo balls to be used in the game isset at fifty-two balls numbered one to fifty-two. At block 562 thenumber of daubs originally allotted to the player is set at five and atblock 563 the number of balls to be drawn in the initial group is set tofive. It is understood that, as was done in FIGS. 4A-4C, each of thesevalues can be replaced with a variable and data structure that is easilychanged from game to game.

At block 564 the gaming system enrolls the first player by accepting awager at the player's gaming terminal 100. As part of the enrollmentprocess the gaming system may randomly distribute numbers one tofifty-two in the matrix of the first player's bingo card 900 at block565 as shown in FIG. 10. The random creation of the bingo card 900 maybe done locally by the gaming terminal 100 or by the network computer310. In either case it is preferable that the gaming system ensures thatno two players' bingo cards 900 are identical. At blocks 566 and 567 thegaming system enrolls an additional player by accepting a wager at anadditional gaming terminal 100 and randomly generates an additionalbingo card 960 as shown in FIG. 11. As in block 413 in FIG. 4, thegaming system may wait to enroll other players at block 568.

After all players have been enrolled, the gaming system draws the firstgroup of five bingo balls at block 570. Corresponding ball icons 905,906, 907, 908 and 909 are displayed on the video display 105 or 107 ofeach player's gaming terminal 100. Additionally, as indicated at block572, based on the matrix position of the spot, if any, corresponding toeach drawn ball, a playing card is also displayed on the video display105 of each player's gaming terminal 100. The suit of the card (i.e.,Spades, Diamonds, Hearts or Clubs) is determined by assigning each ofthe four rows 930, 931, 932 and 933 of the bingo card 900 a suit.Similarly, the rank of the card (i.e., two through ten, jack, queen,king and ace) is determined by assigning each column of the player'sbingo card 900 a corresponding rank. Preferably, the rank associatedwith each column and the suit associated with each row is in a logicalorder and is constant from game to game. Referring now to FIG. 10, itcan be seen that the first five balls drawn were, in order of drawing,the seven ball, the twenty-three ball, the eight ball, the fourteen balland the fifty-two ball. These balls correspond to spots 950, 951, 953,952 and 954 respectively of the player's bingo card 900. Therefore, thegaming terminal generates cards showing the Five of Hearts 910, theEight of Clubs 911, the Queen of Hearts 912, the Ten of Diamonds 913 andthe Queen of Clubs 914. Referring now to FIG. 11, it is apparent thatthese same five bingo balls represent different playing cards on anotherplayer's bingo card 960, specifically the Six of Clubs 915, the Six ofDiamonds 916, the Four of Diamonds 917, the Five of Diamonds 918 and theThree of Diamonds 919. The difference in the playing cards displayed inFIG. 10 and FIG. 11 is attributable to the different distribution ofnumbers on the two player's bingo cards 900 and 960.

It will be appreciated that because there are only fifty-two bingo ballsin the total universe and because each bingo card has fifty-two spots inits matrix, there is no need to check for a match between the matrix andthe drawn ball, as was done at block 422 in FIG. 4. Of course, if theparameters of the instant bingo game were changed, this step could beeasily inserted.

At this point in the game represented by block 574, each player isallowed to make strategic decisions by selectively daubing between noneand all of the five spots 950, 951, 953, 952 and 954 on his bingo card900 that correspond to the five bingo balls drawn. This may be done bytouching the spots 950, 951, 953, 952 and 954, the bingo ball icons 905,906, 907, 908 and 909 or the corresponding cards 910, 911, 912, 913 and914 on the gaming terminal's video display 105. Also, the player maydaub spots by depressing one or more of the corresponding “Daub” buttons155 a, 155 b, 155 c, 155 d and 155 e on the gaming terminal 100.Preferably these buttons 155 a, 155 b, 155 c, 155 d and 155 e aregenerally aligned on the gaming terminal 100 beneath the five bingo ballicons 905, 906, 907, 908 and 909 and/or corresponding playing cards 910,911, 912, 913 and 914 displayed on the video display 105.

After the player is happy with his usage of allotted daubs on the firstgroup of bingo balls drawn, he presses the Continue Draw button 145. Atblock 576 each player's number of allotted daubs is reduced by thenumber of daubs just used. Once all enrolled players have indicatedtheir desire to continue with the draw, the gaming system proceeds toblock 578. At block 578 the gaming terminal 100 removes the undaubedbingo ball icons 905, 906, and 908 as well as the associated playingcards 910, 911, and 913 from the video display. In an alternativeembodiment, it may be desirable to retain on the video display 105 or107 a record of all bingo balls that were drawn even if they were notdaubed. It may also be preferred to rearrange some of the graphics shownto the player on the video display 105 to more easily advise the playerof the results of his strategic decisions as shown in FIG. 12.

At block 580 the gaming system initiates the draw of the second group ofbingo balls. For simplicity the second group of balls may be the samesize as the first group of balls drawn, even though it will often beunnecessary to display the entire second group of balls to the players.At block 582 each gaming terminal 100 displays only the first X balls ofthe second group, where X is equal to the number of allotted daubs thateach individual player has remaining. Also displayed to the player arethe playing cards associated with each displayed ball from the seconddraw. Thus, it will be appreciated that the number of balls from thesecond drawing that will initially be displayed on each player's gamingterminal 100 may vary from terminal to terminal. For instance, referringto FIGS. 12 and 13, the player viewing the video display 105corresponding to FIG. 12 is initially shown ball icons 920, 921 and 922while the player viewing the video display 105 corresponding to FIG. 13is simultaneously shown only ball icon 920. Each spot corresponding tothe initially shown balls drawn in the second drawing is autodaubed forindividual players as indicated at block 584.

At block 586 the pattern formed by the balls selectively daubed by theplayer from the first draw as well as the balls initially displayed fromthe second group that were autodaubed are evaluated to determine if theplayer has formed a winning bingo pattern. If the player has, the playeris paid for the win at block 588. At block 590 the network computer 310,in communication with the gaming terminals 100, determines which playercompleted a paying bingo pattern first. “First” as used hereinpreferably refers to the completion of a bingo pattern using the nthball drawn, as is typical in electronic and non-electronic bingo gamesknown today. However, in alternative embodiments, “first” may also meancompleting a bingo pattern in the fewest daubs or fewest selective daubs(as opposed to autodaubs) or may mean temporally completing the patternfirst by being the first player to complete a pattern and press theContinue Draw button 145. At block 592 the player who first completed awinning pattern is awarded an additional payout based on the pay tableshown in FIG. 9.

If no player enrolled in the current game completes a bingo pattern inthe allotted five daubs, the gaming system proceeds to block 594. Atblock 594 additional bingo balls are drawn and autodaubed on eachplayer's bingo card 900 or 960 until the first winning pattern is formedand detected at logic block 596. The first “draw” of additional ballsmay involve revealing balls drawn in the second group draw that wereinitially not displayed on one or more player's game terminal 100 one ata time. If no bingo pattern is completed in this fashion, or if in analternative embodiment the undisplayed balls from the second group draware ignored, the network computer 310 may draw balls one at a time fromthe remaining forty-two balls until a bingo pattern is completed. Once abingo pattern is completed and detected at block 598 the playercompleting the pattern is paid for a First Pay win as indicated on thepay table shown at FIG. 9 and the game is ended. In some embodiments itmay be desirable to require the player who wins the First Pay tointeract with gaming terminal 100 in some fashion, for instance byhitting a “Collect Win” button 145. Failure to do so in a given amountof time may result in the player “sleeping” his win away, in which casethe gaming system 300 will ignore this first win and continue drawingballs until a second player receives a first win.

Referring now to FIG. 12 and FIG. 13, the end results of the game cannow be analyzed and the payouts received by each player can beexplained. Focusing first on FIG. 12, the player chose at block 574 todaub spots 953 and 954. These spots are both in the eleventh column.Therefore this player had already completed the bingo pattern that paysone credit on the Standard Pay table and 1/100^(th) of a credit on theFirst Pay table (i.e., two spots in the same column, where the column isthe 10^(th), 11^(th), 12^(th) or 13^(th) column). Assuming that no otherplayer completed a bingo pattern by the fifth ball (i.e., the last ballof the first draw) the player would already be entitled to the FirstPay. However, because the player only used two of his allotted daubs, hereceived three additional bingo balls in the second ball draw indicatedat block 580. The first three balls drawn in the second ball draw wereballs numbered twenty-six, twenty-two and thirty-six as indicated byball icons 920, 921 and 922. The three playing cards associated with thespots matching these balls for the player playing the game representedat FIG. 12 are the Six of Clubs 923, the Six of Spades 924, and theEight of Spades 925. Thus, when the player's bingo card 900 is evaluatedat block 586, the player has completed a pattern of two spots in onecolumn and two spots in another column and receives a pay of twocredits, see FIG. 9. The collection of the five displayed playing cardsforms a poker-hand ranking of two pair—Queens and Sixes.

Turning to FIG. 13, the second player chose at block 574 to daub spots961, 962, 963 and 964, thereby using four of his five allotted daubs.Therefore, the second player only receives the first ball of the secondball draw, as indicated by ball icon 920. The spot 966 matching to ballnumber twenty-six completes the bingo pattern of one spot in each offive consecutive columns, for which the player is paid five credits.Referring to the player's bingo card 960, the playing card associatedwith the fifth daubed spot 966 is the Seven of Clubs 926. This playingcard thus completes a seven-high straight.

As with the first embodiment discussed, it is understood that a numberof modifications to this embodiment could be made without altering theessence of the invention, such as only paying a Standard Pay for thefirst bingo pattern formed amongst all the enrolled players or byadjusting the number of balls in play or altering the various paytables.

Those familiar with the art of video poker as well as statistics willunderstand that the foregoing embodiment nearly perfectly matches themathematical principles at work in video poker. The only exception beingthat in the four-by-thirteen matrix used in the example, the Ace mustplay either high or low. In the described and preferred embodiment theAce plays high. This minor irregularity could of course be rectified byincluding a fourteenth column for a low Ace. Preferably the bingo ballnumbers in this fourteenth column would exactly match the numbers in thecolumn for the high Ace. Thus, the bingo pay table shown in FIG. 9nearly perfectly approximates the pay table for the popular video pokergame known as 9/6 Jacks or Better. The probability and expected value ofeach hand in the 9/6 Jacks or Better game is represented by the tablebelow: Hand Probability Payout Expected Return Royal Flush 0.00%* 800**0.0198 Straight Flush 0.01% 50  0.0055 4 of a Kind 0.24% 25  0.0591 FullHouse 1.15% 9 0.1036 Flush 1.10% 6 0.0661 Straight 1.12% 5 0.0449 3 of aKind 7.45% 3 0.2233 Two Pair 12.93% 2 0.2586 Jacks or Better 21.46% 10.2146 TOTAL 45.46% n/a 0.9955*The probability of a Royal Flush occurring is about one in 40,390hands.**In an alternative embodiment, one or more payouts may be based on aprogressive jackpot that increments over time, as is known in the gamingart. When such a progressive is used, it is most preferably paid for themost difficult pattern to complete, in this case the patterncorresponding to a Royal Flush.

In order to keep the expected value or expected return of the StandardPay and First Pay portion of the game below 1.00, it is thereforenecessary to limit the expected return of the First Pay portion to lessthan 0.0045. In the preferred embodiment represented by FIG. 9, theprobability of a First Pay win is approximately 50% when there are onlytwo players enrolled. Therefore, the expected return of the First Paywin is 0.005. Although this yields a total expected return for the gameof 1.0005, it will be appreciated by those familiar with the video pokerart that because players typically make strategy mistakes a game with anexpected return of 1.0005 could be profitably deployed by a casino orother gaming establishment. As an alternative to awarding 1/100 of acredit for the First Pay, the expected return of the First Pay may bemodified by requiring more players to enroll before the game isinitiated. For instance, if two hundred players are required to enrollbefore the game begins, each First Pay could pay one credit, resultingin a probability of approximately 0.5% for an expected return of 0.005.As with the first embodiment explained with reference to FIGS. 4A-4C,the First Pays in this embodiment need not be all of the same value nordo the patterns associated with the First Pays need to be the same asthe patterns associated with the Standard Pays. It is also possible tolower the expected return for the Standard Pays by, for example,reducing the amount paid for a bingo pattern having three spots in onecolumn and two spots in another column (i.e., a full house) from nine toeight and reducing the pay for five spots in one row (i.e., a flush)from six to five. This would lower the expected return of the StandardPays to approximately 97% or 0.97. However, in the most preferredembodiment of the invention, the expected return of the Standard Pays isnot lowered significantly (e.g., more than 2%) below the expected returnof the Las Vegas style video poker machines that the strategy basedportion of the bingo game is emulating. Therefore the ratio of theexpected return from the Standard Pays to that of the First Pays willpreferably be greater than or equal to approximately 16:1 and alsopreferably greater than approximately 32:1 and most preferably greaterthan 100:1.

It should be appreciated that the step of associating each spot on theplayer's bingo card 900 with a particular playing card has at least twosignificant advantages for the present invention. First, it allowscomplicated pay table information for the underlying game of bingo to beexpressed very succinctly. For instance, for the bingo patterncorresponding to a full house—three spots in one column and two spots inanother column—there are 936 different bingo patterns in afour-by-thirteen matrix that would meet this requirement. The need tovisually depict each of these patterns in a See Pay's screen is negatedby the gaming public's general familiarity with what a full house lookslike when playing the game of video poker. The second, and somewhatrelated benefit, is that by associating a playing card with each spotthat is available for daubing, a great deal of information is beingconveyed to the player about his chances of success in the game based onthe instant ball in question without the player having to consult arather complicated four-by-thirteen matrix to determine what other ballsmay have also been drawn in the instant ball's corresponding row orcolumn or in adjacent columns. By associating a single playing card witheach spot on the bingo card's matrix, the player can tell by looking ateach playing card, what row and column the corresponding spot is in inthe matrix. Additionally, by comparing the ranks and suits of the otherdisplayed playing cards, the player can tell if additional spots may bedaubed that are in the same row or column or an adjacent/near by row orcolumn. Not only does this alleviate the need to review the accompanyingdrawn balls in the form of the matrix, but it also eliminates the needfor the player to review the aforementioned complicated and large numberof different visual bingo patterns that may be completed using any onegiven ball.

Playing a bingo game of the present invention, it is possible toincorporate nearly all of the features that are currently popular in LasVegas style video poker games. For instance, one of the most popularvideo poker innovations of the last ten years is multi-handed videopoker as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,873 incorporated herein byreference. The most popular embodiment of the '873 patent is a videopoker game commonly known as Triple Play® poker. In Triple Plays poker aplayer is dealt one video poker hand and the cards that the playerwishes to hold in the first hand are also used in a second and possiblythird hand. This type of poker game could easily be converted to thelast embodiment of the invention disclosed herein by allowing the playerto purchase multiple bingo cards, but initially displaying just a singlebingo card 900. After the player makes his initial daub decisions atblock 574, the gaming terminal creates the additional bingo cards thatwere previously purchased. However, unlike the first bingo card 900 thathad all fifty-two spots randomly assigned a number, the additional cardswill maintain the five spots that match to the first five bingo ballsdrawn and will mark any of these spots as daubed if they were daubed onthe original card. The remaining forty-seven bingo numbers will then berandomly distributed in the matrix of the additional bingo cards. Itwould also be a simple matter to incorporate “wild” spots into thematrix or multiplier spots into the matrix that double the pay table,thus approximating wild cards and multiplier jokers.

While this invention has been described with respect to several specificembodiments thereof, it should be understood that the invention is notlimited to the disclosed embodiments, but rather that the invention isintended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangementswhich will be apparent to those skilled in the art. It is thus to beunderstood that the invention should not be limited by the description,and that modifications and variations in the present invention may bemade without departing from the novel aspects of this invention asdefined in the claims.

1. A method of playing a game of electronic bingo, the method comprisingthe steps of: (a) defining a set of bingo balls; (b) providing a centralcomputer, said central computer being programmed to randomly draw bingoballs from the defined set of bingo balls; (c) providing a plurality ofgaming terminals, said gaming terminals operatively coupled to saidcentral computer to communicate the bingo balls drawn by the centralcomputer; (d) enrolling a plurality of players, each player enrolling byplacing a wager at his gaming terminal, the step of enrolling eachplayer further comprising displaying a bingo card on each player'sgaming terminal, each of said bingo cards comprising a matrix, eachmatrix having a plurality of randomly arranged indicia, each indiciacorresponding to at least one of the bingo balls in the defined set ofbingo balls; (e) allotting each player a defined number of selectivelyactivated daubs; (f) randomly drawing a first group of bingo balls fromthe set of bingo balls; (g) displaying said first group of bingo ballson each gaming terminal; (h) determining for each gaming terminal anymatches between the indicia of each bingo card on said terminals and thefirst group of bingo balls drawn; (i) allowing each player toindividually select for daubing a number of the matching indicia fromthe first draw, the number of matching indicia the player is allowed toselect being any number at the player's option between zero and all ofthe defined number of selectively activated daubs, where the decision toselect or not select a matching indicia is a strategic decision.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: (j) to the extentany player has used less than all of his defined number of selectivelyactivated daubs on the matching indicia resulting from the first groupof bingo balls drawn, drawing an additional bingo ball and automaticallydaubing the matching indicia on the bingo card of each such player thathas at least one remaining selectively activated daub; (k) repeatingstep (j) until each player has used all of his defined number ofselectively activated daubs; (l) checking the bingo cards of each playerto determine if the matching indicia that have been daubed on each cardcompletes at least one of a defined first set of bingo patterns; (m)paying each player who has completed a defined bingo pattern using hisallotted number of selectively activated daubs a defined payout.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, further comprising the steps of: (n) defining asecond set of bingo patterns as a game-ending patterns; (o) to theextent no player has yet completed a game-ending pattern, drawingadditional bingo balls and daubing the matching indicia on each player'sbingo card until at least one player has completed a game-endingpattern; (p) paying the first player who has completed a definedgame-ending pattern a defined payout.
 4. The method of claim 3, whereinat least one of the game-ending patterns is different than any of thebingo patterns defined by the first set of bingo patterns.
 5. The methodof claim 3, wherein all of the game-ending patterns are included in thefirst set of bingo patterns.
 6. The method of claim 3, wherein at leastone of the game-ending patters is included in the first set of bingopatterns.
 7. The method of claim 3, wherein prior to the first bingoball being drawn, the expected value associated with the first set ofbingo patterns is greater than the expected value associated with theset of game-ending patterns.
 8. The method of claim 0, wherein the ratioof the expected value associated with the first set of bingo patterns tothe expected value associated with the set of game-ending patterns isgreater than 16:1.
 9. The method of claim 0, wherein the ratio of theexpected value associated with the first set of bingo patterns to theexpected value associated with the set of game-ending patterns isgreater than 32:1.
 10. The method of claim 0, wherein the ratio of theexpected value associated with the first set of bingo patterns to theexpected value associated with the set of game-ending patterns isgreater than 100:1.
 11. The method of claim 3, wherein the number ofballs drawn in the first group of balls drawn is greater than or equalto the defined number of selectively activated daubs.
 12. The method ofclaim 0, wherein a set of auxiliary symbols is defined and an auxiliarysymbol is associated with each matching indicia; the auxiliary symbolscarrying information thereon and being displayed on each player's gameterminal such that a player can evaluate his progress toward completingat least one of the defined bingo patterns.
 13. The method of claim 0,wherein a standard deck of playing cards is used as the auxiliarysymbols; each matrix is at least 4×13 in size, with each row of thematrix associated with a suit of playing cards and each column of thematrix is incrementally associated with a rank of playing cards, suchthat each cell of the matrix is associated with exactly one playingcard; the set of bingo balls is 52 in number; the first group of bingoballs drawn is 5 in number and each player is allotted 5 selectivelyactivated daubs.
 14. The method of claim 0, wherein a plurality of thedefined bingo patterns and the playing cards associated with each suchpattern form a poker hand of a standard ranking.
 15. The method of claim0, wherein the ratio of the expected value associated with the first setof bingo patterns to the expected value associated with the set ofgame-ending patterns is greater than 16:1.
 16. A method of playing agame of electronic bingo, the method comprising the steps of: (a)defining a set of at least 52 bingo balls; (b) providing a centralcomputer, said central computer being programmed to randomly draw bingoballs from the defined set of bingo balls; (c) providing a plurality ofgaming terminals, said gaming terminals operatively coupled to saidcentral computer to communicate the bingo balls drawn by the networkcomputer; (d) enrolling a plurality of players, each player enrolling byplacing a wager at his gaming terminal; (e) upon enrolling, the gamingterminal displays a bingo card, said bingo card comprising a matrixwhich is at least 4×13 in size, having a plurality of randomly arrangedindicia [, each indicia] corresponding to [at least one of] the bingoballs in the defined set of bingo balls; (f) assigning a set ofauxiliary symbols corresponding to each position within at least a [onthe] 4×13 portion of the matrix wherein a standard deck of playing cardsis used as the auxiliary symbols; (g) allotting each player at leastfive selectively activated daubs; (h) randomly drawing a first group ofat least 5 bingo balls from the set of bingo balls; (i) displaying saidfirst group of bingo balls on each gaming terminal; (j) determining foreach gaming terminal any matches between the indicia of each bingo cardon said terminals and the first group of bingo balls drawn; and (k)allowing each player to individually select for daubing a number of thematching indicia in the at least 4×13 portion of the matrix from thefirst draw, the number of matching indicia the player is allowed toselect being any number at the player's option between zero and all ofthe defined number of selectively activated daubs, where the decision toselect or not select a matching indicia is a strategic decision.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, further comprising the steps of: (l) to the extentany player has used less than all of his defined number of selectivelyactivated daubs on the matching indicia resulting from the first groupof bingo balls drawn, drawing an additional bingo ball and automaticallydaubing the matching indicia on the bingo card of each such player thathas at least one remaining selectively activated daub; (m) repeatingstep (1) until each player has used all of his defined number ofselectively activated daubs; (n) checking the bingo cards of each playerto determine if the matching indicia that have been daubed on each cardcompletes at least one of a defined first set of bingo patterns; and (o)paying each player who has completed a defined bingo pattern using hisallotted number of selectively activated daubs a defined payout.
 18. Themethod of claim 17, further comprising the steps of: (p) defining asecond set of bingo patterns as a game-ending patterns; (q) to theextent no player has yet completed a game-ending pattern, drawingadditional bingo balls and daubing the matching indicia on each player'sbingo card until at least one player has completed a game-endingpattern; and (r) paying the first player who has completed a definedgame-ending pattern a defined payout.
 19. The method of claim 18,wherein prior to the first bingo ball being drawn, the expected valueassociated with the first set of bingo patterns is greater than theexpected value associated with the set of game-ending patterns.
 20. Themethod of claim 19, wherein the ratio of the expected value associatedwith the first set of bingo patterns to the expected value associatedwith the set of game-ending patterns is greater than 16:1.